In order to facilitate the targeting and interception of a desired target object within an environment, a missile, kill vehicle, or other such object will typically be required to select the desired target from a set of candidate targets within its field of view.
That is, as shown conceptually in FIG. 1, a kill vehicle (KV) 110 will be typically be instructed (e.g., by a ground-based battle manager 111) to intercept an object (which may appear as a point to many sensors) selected from what could be hundreds or even thousands of objects 150 within the relevant environment (represented conceptually by points A-H).
Generally, the positional information forwarded to KV 110 has been acquired by a number of different sensors (102, 104) that are geographically remote from each other. In order to reconcile detection information from multiple sources, it is advantageous to produce a threat object map (TOM) that assists KV 110 in determining the correct object to intercept by reconciling conflicting data.
Current methods of producing TOMs are unsatisfactory in a number of respects. For example, each sensor 102 and 104 will typically have its own operational characteristics and will be subject to a variety of detection errors, including, for example, sensor bias, spurious detections, position errors, and dropouts. As a result, a KV 110 may be instructed to intercept an object at point 160 when in actuality there is no such object at that location. In such a case, KV 110 will have to make a decision as to which of the nearby objects (in this case, points C, D, and G) is the desired target object.
Accordingly, there is a need for improved methods of determining an accurate threat object map when presented with conflicting or inconsistent data from multiple sensors. Other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.